University Dedicates New Graduate Dorms, Commons This Afternoon

President Conant makes his first public appearance since his major operation in June when he presides this afternoon at dedication ceremonies of the University's $3,000,000 Graduate Center.

The center, which includes eight new structures, is Harvard's largest building project since the Houses were completed in the early '30's.

About 575 men in five graduate schools will live in the seven modernistic dormitories on Jarvis Field. The eighth hall, Harkness Commons, can serve 1,200 men eat each meal and has extensive lounge facilities.

Buck, Griswold to Speak

Provost Buck and Dean Griswold will speak at this afternoon's ceremonies, which begin at 4 p.m. on the Graduate Center grounds, Designer Water Gropius, Professor of Architecture, will also talk, as will John B. Marsh '03, president of the Law School Fund, and Malcolm Pirnie '10, chairman of the Harvard Foundation for Advanced Study and Research, the alumni organization of the Graduate Schools of Arts of Sciences, Education, Design, and Public Administration.

Students in these four schools will live in two of the new dormitories, Richards and William James. The other new halls--Ames, Dane, Holmes, Shaw, and Story--will house Law School men.

The center provides graduate students in Cambridge with large dormitory and social accommodations for the first time.

Including the men in four old halls near by--Walter Hastings, Conant, Perkins, and Divinity--which are counted as part of the center, there will be about 1,000 students living in the new project.

Work on the center is almost completed, but still to be installed is a 27-foot stainless steel pylon which will be in the sunken outdoor courtyard.